Grave doubts have, however, been thrown upon the accuracy of the above statement by HENRY A. BRIGHT, B.A., in a paper published in the _Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire_, 8vo, vol. xi., session 1858–9. Yet it was an establishment that might have attracted such a mind as Marat’s. “At WARRINGTON ACADEMY (says Mr. Bright), were collected some of the noblest _literati_ of their day. Here the free thought of the English Presbyterians first began to crystallize into the Unitarian theology which they have since maintained. Here, for a time, was the centre of the liberal politics and the literary taste of the entire county.... The Academy was founded in 1757, and was closed in 1786. It was visited by John Howard, W. Roscoe, T. Pennant, Currie, the biographer of Burns, &c. The first Tutors appointed were DR. JOHN TAYLOR of Norwich, Tutor in Divinity, MR. HOLT of Kirkdale, Tutor in Natural Philosophy, MR. DYER of London, Tutor in Languages and Polite Literature, whose duties, however, were taken by MR. (afterwards the REV. DR.) AIKIN, father of the celebrated Physician and Mrs. Barbauld. DR. PRIESTLEY succeeded DR. AIKIN.” DR. PRIESTLEY, who is addressed by COLERIDGE as “Patriot, and Saint, and Sage,” was succeeded by JOHN REINHOLD FORSTER, a German Scholar and Naturalist, who accompanied Captain Cook in his second voyage, DR. ENFIELD, author of _The Speaker_, and the REV. GILBERT WAKEFIELD, were Tutors. Among the students were MR. SERJEANT HEYWOOD; ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN, the Irish rebel; the REV. H. MALTHUS; LORD ENNISMORE; SIR JAMES CARNEGIE of Southesk; MR. HENRY BEAUFOY, etc., all strong Whigs. The name of neither MARA nor LE MAITRE appears on the Minutes of the Academy. For the latest contribution to the history of MARAT’S sojourn in England we are indebted to the researches of MR. H. MORSE STEPHENS, of Balliol College, Oxford, who, in his elaborate and painstaking _History of the French Revolution_ (1886), which includes facts unknown to Carlyle and earlier historians, gives the following account of that “arch-destroyer”; but, as he calls him, “a much maligned individual”:—